Thursday, August 9, 2012

Retro 51 Fahrney's exclusive Cherry Blossom Fountain Pen

Back in April, i decided I wanted this pen. Saw it in the Fahrney's catalog.. I resisted until May, obviously it was a futile effort as obviously it is sitting at home. I've had a very busy 2 months and thus I have just finally opened it (ok well I lie-- i opened it to look at it when it showed up..but didnt bother inking it). I finally broke down, inked it and then promptly put it away --- now that i've found this post sitting in my drafts box it has prompted me to take the pen out for another test run. The pen is lovely -- it came packaged in the standard Retro1951 tube. The orange and blue tube opened up into a felted pen carrier in which this lovely pen lay. I like fine point pens, so I went with a F nibbed pen, but I believe you can get the pen at a variety of nibs from Fahrney's. I admit -- I didnt buy this pen because I thought it would write a great line without skipping (it really does do this though), I got the pen for purely aesthetic reasons -- it's pretty! Look at the sakura blossoms, look at how the branch lies... The cap twists off and posts firmly on the back of the pen -- I dont feel and funny weight issues for me. Without the cap posted, the pen may be a bit light.. but with the cap posted it feels fine.I did not rinse out the nib/pen, just pulled the pen out of the case, popped the cartridge that was included with the pen into the pen, and off i went. It writes rather well -- lays a wet line. The line is thicker than my Pilot VP but then, what German nib doesnt write thicker than a Japanese nib? The nib is made of 2 toned stainless steel. Here are some pictures of the nib and the feed (my point and shoot hates to take macro's sorry for the slightly fuzzy photo):

I have not yet attempted to use a converter with this pen, but Fahrney's website does say that it is cartridge fill only.